Ministry Monday

Today we finish a 3-part series on Media Ministry and the many ways we can use technology for outreach and communication with parishioners and non-parishioners alike.

One of the topics that is most-requested is live streaming for liturgies. Last week AJay Holmes offered tips and products that could get a church live streaming quickly and on a small budget. Today we continue the conversation about live streaming, and dig deeper into the hardware and camera options that could be used for live streaming in church.

Kevin Purcell is a pastor and writer focusing on ministry technology for over 20 years. He serves High Peak Baptist Church in Valdese, North Carolina and blogs at www.kevinpurcell.org. Kevin is also the host of podcast entitled Theotek, focusing on Ministry Tech Made Easy, as well as a vlogger on YouTube at Kevin Purcell.

I found Kevin while searching for the best camera options for my church to invest in for our permanent live stream set up. His blog, like AJay’s, is well-researched and thorough for the church minister looking for support while improving their technological output for ministry. Make sure to check out the show notes of the episode at ministrymonday.org for Kevin’s website, and helpful links to articles for your church’s digital ministry needs.  

Today we continue a 3-part series on Media Ministry and the many ways we can use technology for outreach and communication with parishioners and non-parishioners alike.

One of the topics that is most-requested is live streaming for liturgies. Many Catholic churches scrambled to live stream for the first time last year when COVID-19 shut down Dioceses across the country. And while many Dioceses are slowly returning to less and less safety precautions, media ministry is a term that is becoming a more prevalent term to the Catholic staff vocabulary. Digital outreach is an area that is always evolving and expanding. Thankfully, I spoke to AJay Holmes to dig deeper on the topic.

AJay has been in church his entire life. His father was a pastor for over 35 years and he has served in multiple positions including usher, junior deacon, musician, and choir director. AJay has been a minister of music/musician at numerous churches for almost 30 years. AJay also served in the Marine Corps as a communication technician and once separating, he attended and graduated from Hampton University with a B.S. in Computer Science.

AJay is the creator and owner of TechnoBabble, LLC, an IT company focused on helping houses of worship. AJay's YouTube channel, e-books, website and digital educational offerings seek to broadcast God's Word across the world.

On Feb 15, 2018, God directed AJay to focus on teaching all ministries the importance of media in His church. Since this day, AJay has helped over 100,000 ministries all over the world to “modernize their media ministry”. He continues to teach on his YouTube channel, on Facebook, and through his books on the importance of media ministry in a cost effective way.

Today we start a 3-part series on Media Ministry. My first conversation comes after a conversation I had with a friend and associate in Texas. She works in campus ministry, and raved about how much Flocknote has been helping her stay connected to the students in which she ministers. I myself use Flocknote in my local parish, but I also know that it’s a company that some parishes do not currently use. I reached out to Flocknote to see if they’d be willing to explore the ins and outs of the software, and thankfully, they were willing.

And so I sat down and spoke with Matthew Sewell. Matthew is the Diocesan sales lead at Flocknote and has worked there for almost 7 years. He shared some of the growth that Flocknote has experienced since the global pandemic of COVID-19, and how Flocknote can help us stay connected to our faithful parishioners – and non-parishioners – especially at a time like today.

Please note that this interview was made into a video podcast as well! You can watch the video version of this episode, including a slide show presented by Jose. The video version of this episode can be found on NPM’s YouTube channel, NPM Livestream, and can also be found in the “show notes” of this episode at ministrymonday.org.  

It’s Monday of Holy Week. And we know that for most of our listeners, this means that we have a long week ahead of us.

For many of us, our music is (mostly) prepared at this point, all of the liturgy committee meetings are done, and Victimae Paschali Laudes is practiced and ready. And yet, there are still things to do.

Where are we, ourselves, on our own to-do lists? Have we devoted enough time to prepare, spiritually, for our Triduum journey this week?

I asked Mary Birmingham to share some thoughts about how we, as pastoral ministers, can slow down at the beginning of this holiest of weeks and meditate on the journey ahead.

We continue to celebrate Women’s History Month in the many ways that we, as women, serve the Catholic Church. We’ve been highlighting Women’s History Month on our website, and we encourage you to check out npm.org for more resources. We’ve also made a Youtube playlist of videos highlighting women in their strength, their resilience and their faith. Our YouTube channel, and all of the playlists we create, can be found at npm.org, so go and check it out!

Today’s episode is a replay from exactly one year ago. On March 16, 2020, I released an interview with Steven C. Warner. Steven is the founder of the Notre Dame Folk Choir, and currently ministers at the Newman Centre for Faith and Reason in Dublin, Ireland. He and I spoke over Zoom in the early days of a global shutdown due to the pandemic. In many ways, our conversation could’ve taken place last week and the elements of uncertainty, hesitancy and safety still ring true. But our conversation was more than just the pandemic. In the days leading up to the Feast of Saint Patrick, we discussed the Catholic Church and its joys and struggles in Ireland. It’s a great episode, and one that bears repeating.

Lastly, we hope you’ll join us for a live streamed broadcast of Mass for the Feast of Saint Patrick this Wednesday, March 17, at 7 pm Eastern Time on NPM’s YouTube channel. Links to the Mass and our Youtube channel can be found in the show notes of this episode at ministrymonday.org, and on our main website, npm.org. We hope you’ll join us and pray with us on the evening of the Feast of Saint Patrick.

Today is part 2 of a discussion on chant, featuring my conversations with Brother John Glasenapp. Brother John is a Benedictine monk of Saint Meinrad Archabbey in southern Indiana, where he currently serves as the Director of the newly-formed Saint Meinrad Institute for Sacred Music. Br. John earned an M.A. in Medieval Studies from Fordham University and a PhD in Historical Musicology from Columbia University, specializing in chant. Last week we explored the deep historical context of chant. But how do we apply chant to our modern, mostly American churches? How can we adapt chant to our needs? Brother John joins me from the archabbey in Saint Meinrad, Indiana. For more information visit www.ministrymonday.org.

Today’s topic is a 2-part episode which features my conversations with Brother John Glasenapp.

Brother John’s viewpoint on chant in the Church is deeply rooted in a full historical context, which is what we’re to discuss today. Why can chant be challenging to today’s pastoral musicians? What are the roots from which chant was created? What are the roots of chant in the Catholic Church? How did we get here? And what can we do next?

Today on the podcast I sit down with Stephen Steinbeiser.

For 33 years Steve served as Director of Music and Liturgy for Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. During his time at Duquesne, Stephen also served as the national Chair of the Campus Ministry section for NPM.

Steve’s strengths always lies in inclusion and activation. He always made sure that all campus ministry musicians were included and that their gifts would be fostered and grow. And in our case, campus ministry musicians didn’t necessarily mean music majors! Nevertheless, they all had a place at the table to minister, and Steve taught us how important that was.